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Jack Russell and new puppy

Hi I have a 2 year old jack Russell x maltese, she's always been well behaved and clever.

She loved playing with other dogs so when I moved in with my partner he got a puppy, he's a staffy x kelpie. At first they loved eachother and were so cuddly and friendly, only recently she's been starting to be a bit aggressive towards him, nipping and growling at him when we play catch and she bit him on the nose cause he stepped on her while she was asleep and he drew blood.

I'm just getting worried it might become more aggressive when he gets bigger than her. Any suggestions on how to train his out of her? Im not willing to give either of them up and I just need to know if I should be worried about her getting worse. Thanks

Last edited by Hyacinth; 01-09-2015 at 02:58 PM.
Reason: just put a couple of blank lines in for readability

It is a good idea to do as you are and look for solutions early. If it was me I would contact a local trainer and get specific ideas for my dogs. Advice that is tailored is likely to be the most useful.It may be the older yet smaller dog will continue to be dominant but kelpies don't take much rubbish when they reach maturity and are strong willed dogs.
It is not acceptable behaviour for you so you do need to extinguish it.
If you post your location there is likely to be a recommendation for a trainer near you from one of the members here.

The new staffy x puppy is drawing blood on your old JRT x and you want to train the JRT x not to defend herself?

I think you're looking at training the wrong dog. Train the puppy to leave the older dog alone or play gentle (ie remove him as soon as the other dog shows signs of stress). If you separate him from her when the play starts to get too rough he will soon learn to play more gently. Usually puppies learn this from their other litter mates - but what SBT find "gentle" might be too rough for other dogs - or your new puppy might have been taken away too young to recognise the "back off" signals.

It's up to you to train the dog that is younger and (eventually) bigger to play nice. And not to play unless the other dog wants to. There's no point training the JRT to accept being bashed up by the SBT - not unless you want the SBT to kill her.

PS this is a list of stress signals (back off, I'm not comfortable) in dogs. If your JRT is showing any of these in the presence of your new puppy - don't let him near her. She needs to learn he's not a threat - but she can't do that while he is actually a threat. http://4pawsu.com/stresssigns.html

she bit him on the nose cause he stepped on her while she was asleep and he drew blood

Did you not mean to write this?

The puppy triggered the problem - the JRT is entitled to defend herself - train the puppy.

It's also important that the JRT has a safe place to sleep where she will not be disturbed by the puppy. A crate can help with this - even if you don't shut the door she will be able to keep the puppy out.